Improvement in car-transfer apparatus



R. H RAMSEY. Car-Transfer Apparatusi No. 204,087.- Patented May 21,1878,

UNITED STATES PAT ENT OFFICE.

ROBERT H. RAMSEY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN CAR-TRANSFER APPARATUS.

Speeificationforming part of Letters Patent No. 204,087, dated May 21, 1878; application filed MarchQB, 1878. A

To all whom it mag concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT H. RAMSEY, of the city and county of Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, have inventeda new and Improved Oar-TransferApparatus; andI do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, .andexact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this specification, in which Figure 1' is a side view, with the nearest side track broken away through the line 1 2 3 4 of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a planview. Figs. 3 and 4 are modifications of my invention; and

.Fig. 5 is a cross-section of the tracks, taken through the depressed portion of the main track. Y

My invention relates to an improvement in car-transfer apparatus, or apparatus designed .to effect the transfer of a car-body and conin my patent of May 30, 1876, I employed independent side trucks running on side tracks,

and adapted to sustain the car-body by .crossbeams when the car is run upon adepressed portion of the main track, so that the trucks of the car dropped from their connection with the king-bolt and allowed other trucks of different gage to be substituted. In the patent referred to, however, both ends of the depression in the main track rose to the same level, which general level was that of a horizontal grade, and with this arrangement the aid of a locomotive was necessary to draw the car-body with its newly-placed trucks up the incline at the ascending grade of the depressed portion.

My present invention, while preserving the same general principle of shifting the trucks, consists in arranging the side tracks and the general level of the depressed portion of the main track upon an incline, with the steepest .grade in the side tracks just where the ascending incline of the main track commences,

by which arrangement the shifting of the trucks is effected vby the gravity of thecar and without the aid of a locomotive.

- The invention also further conslsts 1n curving the side tracks outwardly at the point enough underthe car to sustain it without the use of cross-beams, all as hereinafter more fully described.

In the drawing, Arepresents the main track,

having the broad and narrow gage rails a a, and B B are the side tracks, having two side rails, b. Both these tracks (the main track and side tracks) have at the end 0 all, their rails in the same plane, and so also at the ,other end, a, the middle portion of the main track'being depressed below the level of the side track, with an incline at each end leading into the level of the side tracks. Now, instead of arranging the general line of the tracks in 4 .a horizontal plane, as in my former patent,

both the sidetracks and the main track have a descending grade from the point a, where the cars start in, to 0, the steepest incline of the side track being at 0 or just where the ascent from the depressed portion of .the main track commences, the object of the increased grade just at this point being to compensate for the lift of the car-body by thenewly-placedtrucks at the moment when they reach this level and receive the burden of the car from the side trucks.

0 represents the floor-frame of the car-body, attached to its trucks D by the king-bolts E, Fig. 5, and F represents the independent side trucks. In arranging the rails b of the side tracks one of them is placed sufficiently close to the main-track rails to permit the wheels on that side of the side trucks to be beneath the overhanging edge of the car; and the trucks F themselves are provided with supportingpieces 01, which extend over the wheels of the truck, so as to receive the edges of the car and sustain it directly and without the interposition of cross-beams. h

In order to allow these side trucks to be thus placed close under the car-body without interfering with the projecting steps of the car, the side tracks at B B on the higher end of the grade, where the car starts in, are curved outwardly on each side to permit the application of,the trucks, as ihereinafteqdescriljed.

In operatingt-he apparatus the car is pushed to a position where its rear steps are behind the curved portion B of the side trucks, and the side trucks then run in between the steps of the car. The supports dot the sidetrucl sg being adjusted in proper position beneath the car-body, thecar and trucks move from their own gravity down the grade. As the rear passes over the depressed portion of the main track, its body portion is received and sustained by the subjacent side trucks, whilelits own trucks drop down in the depressed .por-i tion of the truck free of the kin g-bolts. The new trucks of a different gage, whichare pre viously placed in the depression, are then? quickly adjusted beneath the kin g-bolt, which seats itself from the descent of 'the car-bodyi upon the side tracks and the ascent of the? trucks from the depression. As the newly-g placed trucks have to lift the car-bodyfiree of the side trucks, some backward tendency is encountered by the trucks in rising from the' depression, and to counteract this the velocity is accelerated by the steeper grade of the side track at this point. It is not necessary, however, for theside tracks to have a steeper grade than the connecting incline, for the ca-r body,

being much heavier than the trucks, will control the motion with a less grade. By having brakes on the side trucks the motion of the car can be controlled while being transferred.

:It will be seen that the trucks are thus shifted quickly and easily,'and automatically, except in so far as the mere adjustment of the trucks in position is concerned.

In practicing my invention, instead of hav mg a depression, as in Fig. 1, in the main tracks with a comparatively straight side tracks, I may, as in Fig. 3, make the main;

tracks with a straight grade, as -at z a z, and

have an elevated side traclgly y, arranged upona grade to the horizontal baseline :6 00,1 or, as in Fig. 4,1 may have a straight side;

,forth. 7

,each side of the car, as shown in the car-truckshifting apparatus patented by me May 30,

'1876, instead of one long truck on each side,

asshown in Figs. '1 and 2. For Pullman cars short side trucks are necessary, while for freight-carslon g trucks are better.

Having thus described my invention, what -I claimas new is- -1.'C[he main tracks having two or more gages of rails, and the side Itracks arranged 'in' a difl'erent plane, and both graded with an incline, as described, and combined with' the v{independent sidetrucks, toiper mit the shifting of the trucks to be effected -by gravityyas set 2. i The inclined graded side rails, combined with the inclined main track, as described, and having a steeper grade atfthe pointwhere the newly-adjusted trucks receive the burden of r the car, substantially as and for the purpose describe 3. The combination, with ,the main track having two o'r more gages ofrails, of rtl e side track's, curved outwardly: at B, and graded at this point in .thesame' plane withthdmain track, and extending closerin to the maintrack at the point whereitis g'raded in a different plane, substantially as described.

' ROBERT E. RAMSEY.

\Witnesses:

GvGRlF-FlTH, O. F. WARWlOKt 

